Thank you @writeintrees & @arigalefantasynovels for the tag!
No pressure tagging: @gracebriarwoodwrites @harrison-abbott @vsnotresponding @bookmarks-reviews & my open tag!
Your words are: PERFUME, DIRE, BEAT, & FRACTURE.
My words were: noon, neat, nurture, and nose & lovely, frantic, hit, and manage. Excerpt origin listed under each. Hidden under the cut.
(After)noon
I tip my head forward so our lips just touch in what can barely be called a kiss.
Light trickles in from the window, late afternoon sunlight that makes the silver in his veins glow and burn. His lazily blinking eyes are alive with golden light, making him every bit as eternal on the outside as he is to me every single moment of every single day. When I pull away, he follows, leaning into another kiss.
- Animatronic Saga Short Story
Neat
“Do you have a calendar?”
Her head tilts to the side. I’m opening my mouth to tell her to forget it, but then she’s rolling her eyes again and pulling a 15-month flip calender from her bag, images of puppies staring up at me. “You doubt me. I’m offended.”
Flipping through, I find December-- a cocker spaniel in a Santa hat-- already filled in with her neat handwriting. December 16th is circled in red. The showcase. Probably the most important performance of the season and the cleanest time to fold back into the company. She’s right. (Of course.)
- Four Kinds Of Falling
Nurture
What’d she wish for?
“She wished for a garden full of things green and growing and vibrant. A garden bursting with lives she could nurture and take care of.”
- Secondary Series
Nose
"You're staring." I refocus to find his tired fond eyes searching my own face. One of his hands finds the nape of my neck and tugs gently at the hair there until we're nose to nose. "Creeper."
I laugh, the sound loud as always, but he doesn't even flinch, just leans in and presses our swollen lips together. "Your creeper," I mumble when he pulls away.
He tugs my hair again. "Yeah."
- Animatronic Saga Short Story
Lovely
I found a pair of scissors in one of the bathroom drawers. Of course, I look lovely. I’ve remade my own clothes a thousand times over because none of them fell quite right. Maybe the slit up my thigh, cut down the center of the square neck, and layered high collar underneath still aren’t. But they’re at least closer.
- Secondary Series
Frantic
“Can you get onto your knees for me?” The nodding is more frantic now, followed by him trying to flip onto his stomach with me still on top of him. “Woah. Hold on. There’s no rush.”
- Animatronic Saga Short Story
Hit(ting)
Something snapped at my wrist and for one delicate moment, I just stared up into the most beautiful pair of eyes I’d ever seen, suspended, floating, flying.
Rrrip! And then I was falling falling falling
with no chance of ever hitting the bottom.
- Animatronic Saga
Manage
And like the American Dream, I get a basket with sticky handles. The balance required to stop for groceries on crutches is no small feat, nor is the fact that I manage to knock at least one item off of every shelf.
